Hitler's Final Days in the Bunker

The Northern Miner [Charters Towers, Qld]
20 March 1947

Nearly, two years have passed since the "1000-year Reich" caved in on Adolf Hitler, but there is still no evidence that the Führer is dead.

This is the opinion of Mr. W. K. Heimlich, former Chief of Intelligence of the U.S. Army in Berlin. Most Germans, asked about Hitler, just shrug and say that, since he has not turned up any place, he must be dead. The Berliner accustomed to his frequent and pompous utterances, say the best proof that he is dead is the fact that nothing has been heard from him. Mr. Heimlich, who regards Hitler as "a little Austrian corporal who shot his wad, but still wanted to live", takes a more realistic approach.

To him, the story that Hitler and his sweetheart, Eva Braun, took their lives In the Chancellery Bunker on Wllhelmstrasse and that their bcdles were burned is false. Mr. Heimlich, who spent months investigating the bizarre story, is now Deputy Director of Political and Civil Affairs for the Berlin Military Government.

"Hitler did not die in the Chancellery, and as far as I know he is not dead," Heimlich said. "That goes for Eva Braun and Martin Bormanh, too".

Bormann, Hitler's Deputy, was supposed to have been fatally injured or killed when the armoured car in which he was rlding was hit by a Panzerfaust on the Weidendammer Bridge near the Reichstag at 4 pm. on 30 April 1945.

"As a matter of fact"' Mr. Heimlich said, "Bormann had a conference with the commander of Berlin troops at midnight and was perfectly well".

Mr. Heimlich said his opposite numbers in the British and Russian Intelligence Units in Berlin agreed with him that no evidence had been found to indicate that Hitler and Eva Brauh died in Hitler's Bunker. There is one possibility, that the first Russian troops to reach the Chancellery found the bodles and reported it only to the highest Russian levels. Heimlich does not believe it. To support his belief is the fact that pictures were taken of the body of Propaganda Minister, Josef Göbbels, but no pictures ever have been produced of the Führer's corpse

Of the story, told by some witnesses, that 40 gallons of gasoline were poured over the bodies of Hitler and Eva Bourn and the bodies burned. Mr. Heimlich says it is untrue. He pointed out that it takes 3,200 degrees of heat to cremate a body in a closed crematory and that even then some bones remain.

"An effort had been made", he said, " to burn the body of a dead pig with 40 gallons of gasoline in the open, but that pig was still recognizable when the fire went out".

A New Challenge to Hitler's Death Story
FACTS London Bureau
The Sun [Sydney, NSW]
5 December 1948

Hitler and Eva Braun are still alive, if the only evidence of death is the story of their cremation, a French crematorium director says.

The director, M. Arthur Hubert, has cremated more than 40,000 bodies at Pere Lachaise Crematorium, Paris. Hubert insists that those who said they burned the bodies of the Nazi dictator and his mistress-wife in the Reich Chancellery on 30 April 1945, were lying, because it was technically impossible for them to have done so in the way they described.

A British Intelligence report issued from Allied headquarters in Berlin on  1 November 1945, officially accepted that Hitler shot himself dead and was cremated with Eva Braun. Hitler's chauffeur Erich Kempka, valet Heinz Linge, and an SS Petty-Officer had said they dug a hole one foot deep, 30 inches wide and six feet long into which they poured 40 gallons of Petrol. They said they put the bodies in, covered them with a blanket and set fire to the Petrol. The fire lasted two hours and left no trace of the bodies.

Hubert says their story cannot be true because:

"You can't burn a body on the ground — bones and some flesh would remain.

"To bum two bodies weighing 12 and 10 stone, a grid some inches above the ground would be necessary.

"Even then enough would probably remain to identify them unless other precautions were taken".

Hubert says it would have been necessary to water proof the walls and bottom of the trench to prevent the Petrol from seeping away. A wall or some such enclosure about 15 inches high would have been needed, with gaps at ground-level to provide a draught under the bodies resting on the grille inside.

Hubert, 55, a tall, white-haired Alsatian with Swiss ancestry, was an industrial central-heating engineer before he took up cremation. He installed crematoriums in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Hubert told "Fact" correspondent Marie de Segur:

"Average time in a proper crematorium is 60 minutes. Women's bodies burn quicker because they are fatter. Corpses of people who have been treated with Penicillin are hard to burn".

Fate of Eva Braun
Morning Bulletin [Rockhampton, Qld]
29 March 1948

Eva Braun is neither legally dead nor legally married to Adolf Hitler, the official Registry office of Greater Berlin reports.

Eva's mother, requested confirmation of Eva's death and marriage in order to settle property matters of the Braun family.

She received the following answer from Standesbeamter Grod, the Berlin official:

"The death of the alleged Eva Hitler cannot be documented. No death report has yet been received in this office. Neither is it known that the corpse has been found in the area of the Reich Chancellery, nor has any corpse been identified as that of Eva Hitler or Eva Braun.

"The validity of the alleged marriage has not been established through the certificate office. There was no documentation of the marriage at the time and no entry of this marriage was made in the personal records. There are no documents or papers in existence which give evidence as to the legality of the marriage.

"If the corpse of Eva Braun was found in the area of the Reich Chancellory and identified ...... the declaration of death would be admissible only under the name Eva Braun, as there is no proof of the legality of the marriage".

-- New York "Herald Tribune"

"The area around Hitler's Bunker was thoroughly excavated and one of Hitler's silk hats and a slip of Eva Braun's were found there, but there were no signs, that the bodies had been there", Mr. Heimlich said.

Copies of X-Ray photographs of Hitler's skull are available and identification could have been made if the skull ever had been found.

Mr. Heimlich admits that Hitler's fate became an obsession to him. He spent days checking down rumours. The Russians insisted they had not found the bodies. He admits that both the British and American headquarters released stories indicating the more or less official belief that Hitler was dead, but that they were not based on Intelligence reports.

"I wish we could have found him in some ignominious grave with 4 feet of dirt on him, but we didn't," he added.

Mr. Heimlich believes that Hitler, Bormann, and Eva probably would hide out together. Where? The former Intelligence officer would not guess. But he pointed out that Hitler, an Austrian, never was able to shed his Austrian accent. With his moustache shaved off and his hair cut short, that probably would be, the easiest place for him to lead a secluded life. It also would have been easy for Hitler to prepare a hideout in Berlin, months in advance of the Russian arrival, prepare false Identify cards and papers, including ration cards, and remain hidden in an obscure part of Berlin for years.

"There's no reason why he shouldn't be right here," he said.

Modern Pharaoh's Tomb
The Sydney Morning Herald [NSW]
18 December 1948

"In the Shelter With Hitler" by Gerhard Boldt. The Citadel Press, London

Deep in the dungeons beneath the Reich Chancellery, in the last stages of the war, Nazi overlords skulked like moles while Russian steel rained above.

This little book of fewer than a hundred pages is an astonishing and convincing eye-witness account of reaction and behaviour as advancing Allied arms squeezed the last of their freedom from them. It is written by a young officer who escaped from this modern Pharaoh's tomb only twenty-four hours before Hitler and Eva Braun supposedly suicided.

Gerhard Boldt was detailed to the subterranean headquarters as orderly to General Guderian and General Krebs, successive Chiefs of the German General Staff, three months before the fall of Germany. His observations of the underground entourage over the period appear acute and accurate. The reputedly divine strategy of Hitler, now sick and trembling, his lustre dulled, is revealed as only a naive, yet murderous, idiocy. When all was lost, when Berlin could not even adequately defend itself, he left his officers dumb with the pronouncement that he wished to attack. With the Reds more numerous than the ants on the earth, he issued a death sentence on any soldier who retreated. Hundreds who refused to continue his senseless murder were hanged from lamp-posts and trees.

The Führer, in fact, knew nothing of the war. For him it consisted of figures and lines on maps. Contact with combat, he believed, would hamper the decisive power of his gonius. He refused to see even see films of his country's damage, preferring to leave his imaginary world undisturbed by reality. Only once, when, in late 1944, his train passed through the suburbs, had he cursorily witnessed the ruin of Berlin, He had not, he told his suite, had the slightest suspicion that the effects of bombing were so devastating. Hitler thought so little of his generals that, after the surrender of Vienna, he ordered one of them degraded to the rank of private.

While the Hitler Youth fought bravely in the streets and six hundred S.S. men cowered beneath concrete to protect Hitler's person, the hope gradually grew in the Nazis' minds that American intervention would save them from the Russians. Even when hope of German succour had vanished they believed that war between Bolsheviks and Anglo-Saxons was inevitable over the spoil of Berlin.

As the Allied armies approached the heart of Germany from both directions, Berliners claimed that optimists were "learning English and pessimists learning Russian". The Nazi foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who had no sense of humour, announced at a diplomatic dinner that "Germany had lost the war but still had it in her power to decide to whom she lost".

Once again their beliefs were wildly astray. It is now history that the Russians were in possession of Berlin for nearly two months before the British and Americans entered the city.

Gerhard Boldt is one of those Germans who were interrogated by H. R. Trevor-Roper before he wrote his vivid "The Last Days Of Hitler". While the story he tells has not the same scope as Trevor Roper's, it is the first complete eye-witness account ever published of those feverish days. One could wish, however, that he had stayed another few hours in the shelter and his life been spared at the end of it all.

He might then have had the solution to the greatest mystery of contemporary history:

Did or did not Hitler really die in the cellars beneath the Reich-Chancellery?

Chester Wilmot in "The Struggle for Europe", the most highly regarded single-volume history of the Second World War in Europe, writes about Hitler and Eva Braun's final fate:

Early in the morning of 29 April, in the presence of Göbbels and Bormann, Hitler married Eva Braun, "the woman who [so he said] after many years of true friendship came of her own free will to this city, already almost besieged, to share my fate".

There was little reward he could offer beyond ending the ambiguity of her position and granting her the privilege of sharing, as his wife, his sacrificial death. It was not incongruous, therefore, that in the prevailing atmosphere of fatalism the wedding breakfast should have been enlivened by a dispassionate discussion of his plans for their suicide. Thirty-six hours later, on the afternoon of 30 April, when Russian tanks were less than half a mile from the Führerbunker, these plans were duly carried out.

"In accordance with the instructions in Hitler's will, their bodies were burned in the garden of the Chancellery and no trace of them was ever found.

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Alan Bullock in "Hitler: A Study in Tyranny" which was the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler and influenced many other major biographies of Hitler, writes: 

Nobody can prove that it was Hitler's body which was carried up the stairs into the garden, for the head remained covered, nor have the ashes and fragments of bone, which even the fiercest fire could be expected to leave, ever been discovered.

Dead, or Alive?

Is Hitler dead? More than seven years have now passed without any trace of his survival, despite the most lurid and exciting rumours. lt may well be doubted whether a man in his exhausted state of health would in fact have lived long if he had escaped from the Bunker.

True, the evidence is only circumstantial -the accounts, most carefully investigated by H. R. Trevor-Roper, of those who took part in the final scene at the Bunker; Hitler's statement of intention in his will; and so on. 

But these are less serious gaps in the story than may appear at first sight. It was perfectly natural to cover Hitler's head, since he had shot himself through the mouth. The clothes on the body were certainly his. As for the ashes, it has been suggested that they may have been collected and placed in a casket to be handed to the Hitler Youth commander, who was present, as sacred relics for the next generation.

But the simplest explanation may still be the correct one. It is not known how thorough a search was made by the Russians, and it is perfectly possible that the remains of Hitler and his wife became mixed up with those of the other bodies which were found there, especially as the garden remained under continuous bombardment until the Russians captured the Chancellery on 2 May. This remains hypothesis, but when it is added to the psychological probability—which all the evidence confirms —that this was the end Hitler would choose, and the state of his health at the time, it is a fairly convincing argument.

In any case, seven years is a long time. If Hitler has not so far appeared to take advantage of the confusion and divisions which he left as his legacy to Europe, it is a reasonable assumption that he is in fact dead. Whether a Hitler legend may not yet appear to prove more troublesome than ever Hitler alive would be, is another question, to which the answer of the future is still concealed. 

---

An article in "Truth" [Brisbane, Qld] on 11 October 1953 states:

Many cans of Petrol were poured over the bodies. Bormann tossed a match on the petrol-soaked ground, there was a flash of fire, an explosion, and the bodies of Hitler and his bride were engulfed in roaring flame.

Fed steadily with more Petrol, the blaze is said to have been maintained till 10.30 that night. What was left of Hitler and his wife was buried by General Rattenhuber and a detail of Elite guardsmen. Dawn over battered Berlin the following day revealed the Chancellery in ruins.

There was no sign of the remains of Hitler and his bride. Like the Third German Reich, they had crumbled to dust.

Former Pilot and Valet Tell How Hitler Died
The Canberra Times [ACT]
10 October 1955

HERLESHAUSEN [Germany]: Hitler's chief personal pilot, Hans Baur said on return from Soviet captivity yesterday that he saw Hitler shoot himself dead.

"The Führer Iooked at me gravely, in the eyes, shook my -hand, said 'goodbye' and shot himself," he said. Baur said Hitler's wife, Eva Braun committed suieide in his [Baur's] presence in a Bunker of the Reich Chancellery. . . "

However before Baur could tell further details, he was whisked off by Red Cross officials.

Thirty-one other former prisoners were in transport which brought Baur from the Soviet Union.

Baur said later:

"There is no doubt about it! Hitler is dead and Eva Braun died on the same day as he. I did not see their bodies afterwards and I do not know what happened to them".

There had been many conflicting reports about the drama in the Bunker, some saying Hitler and Braun were not married, others that they married almost at the last moment before their suicide. Some reports said Hitler and Braun took poison after a last minute marriage;

Baur's acccount is the first eyewitness version.

Heinz Linge, Adolf Hitler's personal valet, today also declared  the Führer to be dead says an "American Associated Press" report from Berlin.

"I carried his body out of the Bunker, and then helped pour Petrol over it", he was quoted as saying. "I watched it burn for about five minutes".

Linge gave his version of Hitler's last' minutes after returning from the prisoner of war camp in Russia. H6 said Hitler and his bride, Eva Braun, committed suicide in the Führer's air raid Bunker in the Chancellery garden in Berlin on 30 April 1945.

"They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms," Linge said. "Hitler shot himself, Eva Braun took poison".

Both bodies were liberally doused with Petrol. About 10 men, of them in the S.S. staff of the Bunker, watched as the bright blaze consumed the bodies.

Linge said he then fled with Martin Bormann, chief of the Chancellery staff. Linge said Bormann entered a Tiger tank and tried to break through the ring of Russians who were closing on the centre of the city. "I don't think he made it. The last time I saw the tank was at the Weidendammer Bridge," said Linge.

The bridge is in what is now East Berlin. Bormann was officially declared dead last year.

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Conflict In Stories Of Hitler's Death
Hans Baur, Hitler's chief personal pilot, said he saw the Nazi dictator and Eva Braun shoot themselves dead amid the blazing ruins of Berlin in April 1945. Heinz Linge, Hitler's personal valet, said: "Hitler shot himself, and Eva Braun took poison. They were alone in one of the Bunker rooms". 
The Canberra Times [CT]
11 October 1955

BERLIN: Two men who were with Hitler to the last have given conflicting accounts of how the Führer and Eva Braun met their deaths in besieged Berlin.

Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet, told reporters yesterday that he threw a blanket over the Führer's body on 30 April 1945, and helped to burn it. Linge, who arrived in Berlin last night among a group of 116 ex-prisoners, said he had tried to carry the body out of the Chancellery by himself but found it too heavy. The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were then soaked with Petrol and burned.

Linge's revelations came less than 21 hours after Hans Baur, Hitler's' personal pilot, told reporters at the West German repatriation camp of Friedland that he saw Hitler and Eva Braun shoot themselves in the Chancellery air raid shelter.

"The Führer looked me gravely in the eyes, shook my hand and said 'goodbye,' and shot himself", Baur said.

"Braun shot herself at the same time," he added.

Baur also told reporters that Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy, was killed trying to escape from beleaguered Berlin.

"Reuter's special correspondent with the Twenty First Army Group, writes:

The first personal story of how Hitler met his death in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin with Eva Braun was told last night [20 June 1945] by a man who was a member of Hitler's bodyguard. The story comes from Herman Kernau, a 32-year-old former policeman who recently gave himself up to the Canadians.

He said that Hitler died on 1 May. He had married Eva Braun at the end of April.

"In the last days of the siege members of the bodyguard were allowed to pass through Hitler's Bunker which was 60 feet below ground because the bombardment was so heavy.

"On 1 May, as I was passing through the Bunker to draw my breakfast rations, I saw Hitler sitting in a basket chair, nervously tapping with his fingers. In the afternoon about five o'clock I returned to the Bunker and it was then empty. Franz Schädle, one of Hitler's personal staff, was in a state of great distress and calling out:

'The Führer is dead - and burning'.

The former bodyguard went on:

"I went outside the Bunker and found the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun lying on sandy ground about three yards from an emergency exit. There was a terrible smell. Both bodies were burning".

Karnau, who last saw Hitler alive at around 4.00 pm, believed that Hitler was subsequently poisoned by one of his personal physicians, Dr Ludwig Stumpfegger, and cremated at around 6.30 pm that same day.

It should not be concluded that Karnau was wrong about a cremation having taken place on 1 May.

On 7 May, Dr Helmut Kunz, who had worked in the Reich Chancellery dental surgery from 23 April 1945 onwards, was interrogated by the Soviets. The evidence he gave on this occasion cannot be lightly dismissed because it was the first account ever given by a Bunker survivor—meaning that it is the least influenced by accounts given by others. It is also the most reliable, in the sense that the events it discusses had taken place only a week before.

Dr Kunz explicitly affirmed seeing Eva Hitler alive on at least two occasions on the evening of 30 April.

Dr Kunz told his Russian interrogators that he had seen Eva playing with the Göbbels children on that evening and that a little later, between 10.00 and 11.00 pm, he, Professor Werner Haase and two of Hitler's secretaries had joined her for coffee.

On the latter occasion, Eva told Dr Kunz that Hitler was not yet dead but he "would die when he received confirmation that [his] will had reached the person it had been sent to". 

--  V. K. Vinogradov et al. [eds], "Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB", Chaucer Press, London, 2005

Dr Haase's interrogation record, as well as those of several other Bunker survivors, affirms that Dr Kunz was in the Bunker in the period in which these events took place.

Unfortunately, the record of Dr Haase's interrogation published in "Hitler's Death", contains no information pertaining to either Adolf or Eva Hitler.

It is very hard to imagine that Dr Kunz could have been confused about the date, that in such circumstances he could have mistaken Eva Hitler for someone else or that Eva did not actually know whether Hitler was yet dead or not. Moreover, since Hitler's will never reached its intended recipient[s], it is entirely plausible that Hitler would not have decided to die until the last possible moment, which is consistent with a time of 6.30 pm on 1 May.

Former Officer Claims Hitler Took Poison
The Canberra Times [ACT]
14 January 1956

BONN: Harry Mengerhausen, former S.S. officer, yesterday claimed he was one of four men who burnt Hitler's body.

Mengerhausen claimed Hitler took poison, and did not shoot himself, thus contradicting the report of Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, who returned from Russia last year.

A former member of Hitler's bodyguard, Mengerhausen was one of 284 prisoners released from Russia who arrived in West Germany yesterday.

He said:

"Hitler always told the German people he would stand up for his deeds, and his suicidc looked to us like a shameful running away".

Hitler Died By Poison, Say Russians
The Canberra Times [ACT] 
13 July 1964

MOSCOW: Hitler committed suicide with poison and not a pistol shot as commonly supposed, "Nedelya", the weekend supplement to "Izvestia", said yesterday, "British United Press" reported. Hitler's aides then shot the corpse in the mouth to help build a myth that he died a more honourable death, said "Nedelya".

"His hands trembled and his head jerked. His morale had crumbled completely. He lacked any will-power. Hitler was. virtually unable to shoot himself," it said.

Igor Yegorov, who wrote the description of Hitler's death for "Nedelya", took part in the Russian investigation into the last days of Hitler. The paper said he interviewed the people who witnessed Hitler's death.

Yegorov said Bormann and Josef Göbbels spread the story of the pistol suicide to others in the Bunker. Then the bodies were burned, "British United Press" reported. "The Russians found the remains," he added.

"British United Press" says part of the story has been told before - frenzied Hitler living on hope and fear as the Red Army stormed into Berlin at the end of April, 1945.

"Hitler was so demoralised he was completely unable to handle any question. He was possessed by two ideas: an animal fear of Russian capture and frantic hope for a miracle. He used to say to those rare people he talked to: 'If they [the Russians] capture me, they will put me into an iron cage and will carry me round the occupied countries. And everybody will spit at me', Yegorov said. 

Then, however, he tells something new. It had been reported Hitler poisoned his favourite dog, Blondi. It had been considered simply that Hitler wanted Blondi spared having a Russian master. Yegorov, however, said Hitler's dog died as a poison test for his master. The fact that Hitler had poisoned himself was proven when Hitler's remains were checked.

"In his jaw small bits of a poison pellet were discovered," the newspaper said. Yegorov said, however, "the myth that Hitler, the Commander-in-Chief of the Third Reich, had shot himself, had saved the honour of the Officer Corps of the Nazi Army".

Hitler Death Puzzle
Soviets Tell Secrets
The Canberra Times [ACT]
3 August 1968

NEW YORK: Twenty-three years after the event, Soviet sources have finally disclosed details of the autopsy and other medical reports on the death of Hitler, writes Harrison Salisbury of the "New York Times".

An exhaustive Soviet inquiry established positively, according to a book to be published today, that Hitler's death was due to cyanide poisoning. The body was identified through detailed examination of dental records. The Soviet version of Hitler's death contradicts earlier versions, including those of William L. Shirer and H. R. Trevor-Roper. Both concluded that Hitler shot himself and that Eva Braun, his mistress whom he had married the day before, had poisoned herself.

The Soviet reports, suppressed completely by Stalin and to an extent by his successors, have been compiled by Lev Aleksandrovich Bezymensky, a former Soviet intelligence officer and a translator and historical journalist. They are being published in New York under the title "The Death of Adolf Hitler", by Harcourt, Brace and World, and are being published simultaneously in Europe.

It had not been previously known that a Soviet counter-Intelligence team found the bodies believed to be those of Hitler and Eva Braun on 5 May in a shell crater where they had been put in a shallow grave. The bodies, badly charred, were taken from the crater, adjacent to the Reichschancellory Bunker, wrapped in blankets and placed in wooden boxes along with the bodies of two dogs found in the same shell crater. A topflight Soviet medical team, headed by Dr Faust I. Shkaravski, chief of forensic medicine for the First Byelorussian Front, was assembled at Berlin-Buch, where the bodies of the Göbbels family and that of General Hans Krebs, Acting Chief of the German Staff, had also been transported. All of the bodies came from the Bunker. The forensic team performed autopsies on each body, examining those that proved to be Hitler's and Eva Braun's on 8 May.

The corpse believed to be Hitler's was badly burned. However, the medical examiners recovered a potassium-cyanide capsule from the mouth. They found no sign of wounds on the corpse but part of the skull was missing. A cyanide capsule was also found in the mouth of the Braun corpse. A team of investigators set out on 9 May 1945, to locate Hitler's dentist, a Professor Blaschke, The dentist was not found, but with the aid of his assistant, Frau Käthe Heusermann, the X-rays of Hitler's dental work and several gold crowns that had been made for him but had not yet been fitted were located in the Blaschke clinic. These materials were taken to a dental technician named Fritz Echtmann, who had made the bridges and plates. The dental work matched that taken from the corpse believed to be Hitler's. A similar identification was made of Eva Braun.

As Soviet counter-Intelligence reconstructed the scene, Hitler and Eva Braun retired to their quarters in the early hours of 30 April after Hitler had ordered his valet, Heinz Linge, to return after 10 minutes "when everything was quiet". Linge returned to carry out what he called "the most difficult order of his life". This, the Soviet investigators deducted, was to deliver a coup de grace.

Valet Denies Shooting Hitler
The Canberra Times [ACT]
5 August 1968

LONDON: Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, denied yesterday that he shot the Nazi dictator in a Berlin Bunker.

Interviewed in Hamburg on the British Broadcasting Corporation current affairs programme, "24 hours", Mr. Linge said the Russians were lying when they said he had administered the coup de grace. He was commenting on a Russian book, "The Death of Adolf Hitler", written by a former Soviet Intelligence officer, Lev A. Bezymensky.

After a full inquiry, Mr Bezymensky wrote that Hitler's death was caused by cyanide poisoning, followed by a coup de grace by Mr Linge.

When Soviet troops entered the refuge of Hitler, the Russian leader Josef Stalin immediately ordered a report. 

The news he received from his generals was definite: the most wanted man had escaped.  Stalin communicated this news to the United States, however, the enlargement of the impressive initial information is worrisome because the Soviets also claimed that Hitler had fled in a submarine, with Spain or Argentina as alleged to destinations.

All of the above is documented - was published even by the newspapers of the time - and anyone who wants to question Hitler's escape should start by knowing this part of the official history is also covered with official misinformation. 

"Hitler is alive, he escaped to Spain or Argentina".

This statement was released, without doubt, by Stalin to answer a question from James Byrnes, US Secretary of State, during the Potsdam Conference, 17 July 1945. The Soviet dictator accused the Western Allies of being complicit in the escape the Nazi leader.  In the previous month, General Georgy Zhukov, one of the leading generals of the Red Army, had spoken in a similar vein at a press  conference, Hitler escaped by plane possibly before the siege of Berlin closed, he said.

To fake Hitler’s death would have been simple.  A Hitler double could have been secreted into the Bunker any time prior to his reported suicide. After Hitler got Eva to take poison—or a dead duplicate Eva brought in—the double, dressed in the Führer’s clothing, could have been shot, a poison capsule placed in his mouth, and left to be discovered by Bormann and retrieved by the unsuspecting valet Linge.
 
Hitler could have then passed from the study through his living quarters to a small conference room containing a stairway to the garden above. Hitler had instructed Linge to wait,  "at least ten minutes before entering the room".  While Linge and others from the entourage waited in the hallway outside Hitler’s study, the Führer’s party and an armed SS escort could have made their way to a secluded spot to await darkness.

Under the cover of night, Hitler could have moved along Hermann Göring Strasse, then cut across the Tiergarten to the Zoo Station near Adolf Hitler Platz. From there, they could have followed the rail lines to the Reichssportfeld and crossed the Scharndorferstrasse to the Piechelsdorf Bridge, a short walk to the Havel River, where a Ju-52 floatplane would have been waiting to fly the Führer out.
 
Indeed a Ju-52 pontoon plane had landed on the Havel the previous night, at the radioed request of someone in the Führerbunker. It took off that same night. Author Glenn Infield has suspected this was a practice run for the following night.
 
Once away from Berlin, an airplane could have taken Hitler almost anywhere in territory not under direct control of the Allies—Switzerland, Spain, or any number of other friendly locations.

-- Jim Marrs, "The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America"

But was it not the Russians who had found the remains of Hitler and his wife Eva Braun? Was it only charges used by the wily Stalin to sow discord in the lobby of the Cold War?  With quick reflexes, the British mandated its own investigation by Hugh Trevor Roper, who served as an Intelligence officer.

Through interviews with members of Hitler's entourage he arrived at the "strict" conclusion of suicide. He concluded that Hitler married Eva Braun on 29 April 1945 and the next day both took their own lives in the underground Bunker of the Chancellery, surrounded by Russian troops. Then their bodies were burned in the gardens of the building by his acolytes, inside a crater caused by a bomb.

Trevor Roper published his work in 1947 as a book ["The Last Days of Hitler"] and this was foundational to the suicide theory. 

Most of the researchers who succeeded him  cited it over and over, without doubting his findings.

Michael Musmanno, one of the American judges at the Nuremberg process, wrote his own book with interviews with Nazi officials ["The Last Witness of Hitler"]. The American judge reached similar conclusions to Trevor Roper's. 

But, beyond the testimony of those who "saw Hitler die", were there other tests? Where was the body?  After Stalin's death in 1953, the Russians reported that the remains of the Führer had been properly identified. Dental bridges had been the key to conclude that Hitler was died. 

Then the corpses of Hitler, his wife and the Göbbels family were buried in the Magdeburg barracks. In 1970 all the bodies were exhumed and, except for a piece of Hitler's  skull,  were burned and the ashes thrown into the sea. In the 90s, the Russians exhibited for the first time what was supposed to be the last vestige of the skeleton of Hitler. They said it was conclusive proof that would silence the rumors.  But American experts called in for an investigation revealed on "History Channel" that the piece of skull was that of a woman between 20 and 40 years. 

The contradictions, cross versions, the lack of tangible evidence prepared the ground for a line of parallel investigation, which rejected the official version and sought to know what was really behind the "Death of Hitler" The Hungarian-Argentinean Ladislao Szabo threw the first stone in 1947, with his book "Hitler is alive", claiming that the leader of the Third Reich had escaped from Europe in submarine. Several authors picked up the glove and followed the tracks over the course of the years. Jeff Kristenssen [pseudonym of Captain Manuel Monasterio] and Italian Patrick Burnside were among them. In recent years, research deepened: two British authors, Gerrard Williams and Simon Dunstan, with "Grey Wolf" and an Argentine, Abel Basti, with "Hitler's Exile" and other publications. 

They continued to lag behind, providing data and taking for granted that the Nazi dictator fled and lived quietly in Argentina, and stating the exact day of his death. They talked about the found  clues that led them to say that. They revealed that two other "dead" in 1945, Martin Bormann, right hand man to Hitler and Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo, had organized the escape plan.

After recalling the lack of forensic evidence about the death of Hitler and his wife, both Williams and Dunstan and Basti wonder why the Intelligence services of the United States continued to look for Hitler and their agents receiving reports from South America, where several people claimed to have seen Hitler.

"If one media accesses times, newspapers, news agencies, radio broadcasts and more, the news is that Hitler escaped," Basti said, recalling the history of Stalin and Byrnes cited at the beginning. 

But how was it possible that Hitler escaped?  Whose was the body found?

The answer to the first question "With the complicity of the Western Allies". The second: With a double.

With some minor differences, Dunstan-Williams and Basti agreed that Hitler left the Bunker on foot through a connection to the Berlin subway, from there he flew by plane to Denmark, then to Spain, to board a submarine to the Canary Islands. Final destination: the Patagonian coast. 

One of the pilots transporting Hitler, Luftwaffe Captain Peter Baumgart, raised the issue in 1947. This is reflected in the newspapers of the time. He even said it in court in Warsaw, but no one listened and he disappeared into oblivion. 

Baumgart’s testimony would be corroborated by notes from the U.S. Army interrogation of an SS officer who claimed to have witnessed the escape, though –according to Dunstan and Williams– he too mysteriously disappeared shortly after levying the charges.

Hitler would have spent his first night in Necochea Argentina. Then he would have flown to Neuquén and Bariloche airport, which at that time was on the grounds of Estancia San Ramon, "a place closed and fully controlled by Germans". Ex-sailors of the 'Graf Spee', sunk off the coast of Montevideo after the Battle of the River Plate, acted as custodians of Hitler.

San Ramon sheltered Hitler and his wife for nine months. 

After that time, they moved to the shelter money from Bormann had allowed to be build about 100 kilometers away. The place was Inalco, on the Chilean border near Villa La Angostura. The new home of Hitler had a similar layout to the Berghof, the resting place the dictator had in Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps.
 

Hitler loved the mountains at Bariloche so like the Bavarian Alps
 

Dunstan and Wiliams claimed that Hitler made trips to Laguna Mar Chiquita in Córdoba, where he underwent surgery to remove chips from an old wound caused by the bomb attack on 20 July 1944. He also would have passed through La Falda, to visit the Eichhorns, a German couple who had contributed money to the Nazi cause from the beginning. Impunity was such that an FBI report published in "Grey Wolf", was by an by agent who saw Hitler "on vacation" in Casino, Brazil, in 1947. The movements of Hitler by Argentina were witnessed by countless witnesses interviewed by the authors. A former custodian of Peron even  told them that the three-time president met with Bormann.

Where Dunstan and Williams differed with Basti  is on the date and place of death of Hitler. For the former, the Hitler expired on 13 February 1962 in La Clara, a place where he had moved after the coup that overthrew Peron in 1955. Abandoned by Eva, who had gone to Neuquen, Hitler would finally die, surrounded by his guardian, Heinrich Bethe and his doctor, Otto Lehmann.

For Basti, Hitler's demise occurred in Paraguay, on 3 February 1971 in Paraquay, where the former Nazi dictator had traveled, fearing that Peron's fall could lead to the withdrawal of protection.

According Basti, Alfredo Stroessner gave asylum to Hitler in his last days.

Was Hitler's Body Ever Found?

What actually became of Hitler's body? To what extent was it burned? Did the Russians find anything resembling a corpse?

The burning of a corpse in the open is not of course comparable to a cremation in a crematorium, and not even to the burning of a body or parts of a body in a stove such as occurs from time to time in criminal cases.

During a cremation, the enveloping heat reflected from the walls of the oven leads to the intensive destruction of organic matter. If a corpse is burned in the open, as was the case with Hitler and Eva Braun-Hitler, the distribution of heat varies and consequently so does the depth of destruction, besides which much heat is lost by radiation into the atmosphere. When a human body is burned in the open by means of Petrol, the first thing that burns off is the extraneous Petrol, which causes a strong heating up of the corpse. Then, because they act like a wick, the fire spreads to the clothes, which burn away more or less quickly depending on the nature and structure of the fabric.

When the open flames then act directly on the body surface for a longer period of time, the final result is carbonization. During the process, steam forms in the subcutaneous tissue and in the course of the burning the pressure can rise dramatically, so that the body surface bursts open in many places, like an overheated frozen burrito. The skull can also burst from the same effect. The heat causes the protein in the cells of the muscles to congeal, which then contract. This leads to contortions of the arms or the lifting up and contracting of the upper body and legs, which stay in this position because of posthumous heat rigor mortis, which is called the "fencer's stance".

The heat causes the body fat to melt and the fatty acids released to run out of the gashes in the skin. Because of the major loss of water and fat, the carbonated corpse or torso shrinks to a substantial degree. If the burning continues for an extended period of time, the soft tissue is almost completely consumed. The only thing remains is fragile, calcified bones that can easily disintegrate even without external force being applied.

As a result, it is very unlikely that anything resembling a human corpse remained following Adolf Hitler's post-mortem burning.

According to Günsche:

"That Adolf Hitler was not completely burnt up with the help of the Petrol is correct. The remains were scattered and shell fire did the rest... The heavy artillery and napalm fire went on until 2 May. Nothing was left that could point to Hitler... Often I can only shake my head about the claims of so-called witnesses, some of whom were not even there and are only repeating hearsay from others as their own observations. Maybe such claims, which were made immediately after the end of the war and have been repeated in various versions, are the answer to the fact that no one was in a position to prove what was left of the Führer's corpse and where this could be seen. None of the reports about this can be proved: they are falsification... The destruction of the Führer's corpse and that of his wife was complete through various causes".

Therefore, it is most likely nonsense that the Russians, as they claimed several weeks after his death, ever found Hitler's body/corpse. To this day the Russians have not presented a single piece of evidence that they found Hitler's corpse. Where are the authentic photographs? Where is the allegedly lead-lined box with Hitler's identifiable corpse? Why was this not shown to the German witnesses the Russians had captured? Even though in 1945--and during their reconstruction of the events in 1946--the Russians kept telling Linge, Günsche, Baur, Hofbeck, Henschel and the others that they would be "confronted with Hitler's body," they never showed it to any of these people.

Flugkapitän Hans Baur said on 24 November 1995:

"After we arrived in Berlin, I was interrogated by a Commissar I already knew called Krause [Klausen], who had come with us from Moscow. This Commissar held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He told me that it was now high time to decide what to do with the corpses. We would be shown the bodies and should say whether we recognized any features which could indicate the identity of Hitler or Eva Braun. Up to now the bodies had been preserved. It was now time to decide if this should remain so or whether they should be destroyed. A confrontation with the corpses did not take place, however..."

The only person who claimed to have seen Hitler's corpse is Harry Mengershausen. He recalled that, in early June 1945, an inspection of "the place" where Hitler's corpse had allegedly been buried took place. The crater had been dug up. It must be remembered that the garden of the Chancellory and the area around the Bunker was a huge field of craters. That Mengershausen spoke of a specific crater is already an indication that he was lying. Mengershausen goes on to say that in early July he was taken from the prison in Friedrichshagen to an open pit in woods nearby in order to identify three corpses. Each of the corpses was by itself in a "small wooden casket". The corpses had been those of Hitler and Herr and Frau Göbbels.

Mengershausen claims to have "clearly recognized" Hitler by the shape of the head, the distinctive shape of the nose and the missing feet. "From the distance" he had not been able to see if Hitler's jaw had still been there. The whole "viewing of the bodies" had lasted for less than two minutes.

Mengershausen is telling a story--in great detail--that simply does not fit the circumstances. It is impossible that he was able to detect the "distinctive shape of Hitler's nose". The nose, like all the other soft tissues of the face, the torso and the extremities, must surely have burned away during the relatively long cremation process. A skull that is exposed to strong heat can preserve its bony shape for quite some time, but not its distinctive features, which it takes from the soft tissue of the face.

There was another witness available in 1945, who had been as closely involved in the final phase of the destruction of Adolf Hitler's and Eva Braun's bodies as Harry Mengershausen, if not more closely. This witness was Hermann Karnau who was a prisoner of the British.

On 13 November 1953, Karnau recounted:

"In November 1945 I was taken from Esterwegen to Berlin. Here I was told by an officer of the Secret Service that I was to lend a hand in the local search for Hitler's remains. However, this did not take place because of the refusal of the Russians".

Hitler's Skull Fragment Displayed
By Anna Dolgov
Associated Press Writer
26 April 2000

MOSCOW: What officials claim is a fragment of Adolf Hitler's skull went on display Wednesday, along with documents revealing what happened to the dictator's remains after they were seized by Soviet troops in 1945.

The piece of skull and the jaw are the only surviving remains of Hitler's body, according to officials at the archive service and at the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor of the KGB.

Photographs of the jaw went on display Wednesday. But the jaw itself, with the dental work that originally allowed the Soviets to identify Hitler's body, is still in secret archives.

"The jaw is the main piece of evidence in the decades-old Soviet investigation into Hitler's death," said Yakov Pogony, head of the FSB archive department. "And the main piece of evidence must be preserved".

After Hitler shot himself in his Berlin Bunker on 30 April 1945, his body was taken outside by his staff, doused with gasoline and set ablaze along with the remains of his longtime companion, Eva Braun.

Soviet troops seized the remains when they captured the Bunker. But what happened later has been shrouded in mystery and speculation.

Secret communications between Soviet counter-Intelligence units in Germany and the government in Moscow tell of repeated burials and exhumations of the remains, and of their final destruction by fire in 1970.

According to the documents, which also went on display Wednesday, the remains had been kept by the counterintelligence unit of the Soviet 3rd Army, part of an intelligence organization called SMERSH -- a Russian acronym for "Death to Spies." The soldiers buried and dug up the remains at least three times in 1945-46 as the army moved around Germany.

They were finally interred on SMERSH-controlled grounds in Magdeburg, a town about 70 miles west of Berlin -- until the Soviet government in 1970 ordered the remains be dug up and burned, the documents say.

The Magdeburg base was about to be transferred to East German authorities, and the Soviets feared "possible construction or excavation work on this territory that might lead to the discovery of the remains," according to a report by KGB boss Yuri Andropov.

"Hitler's jaw, however, had been removed and brought to Moscow in 1945, to be included as evidence in an investigation into Hitler's death", said Sergei Mironenko, head of Russia's State Archive.

The skull fragment was found separately in 1946, when the Soviet secret police opened a second investigation, prompted by rumors that Hitler had survived. They again dug up the hole outside Hitler's Bunker, Mironenko said. The fragment they found was sent to Moscow.

Is it believable that:

a) It was possible to miss something as significant as Hitler's skull, the first time around.
b) That Stalin et al would not have had every inch of that locale searched the first time around.
c) That it would take them the best part of a year to realize that they should have looked closer.
d) That they could return a year later and actually find his skull when it was nowhere to be found, previously.  

Russia announced it had the skull fragment in 1993, and some Western experts argued it was not Hitler's. But Mironenko insisted his service had "no doubts that it is authentic."

"It is not just some bone we found in the street, but a fragment of a skull that was found in a hole where Hitler's body had been buried," Mironenko said in an interview.

Still, the archives service has asked Russia's Forensic Medicine Institute -- a top agency for genetic testing -- to help in positively identifying the skull fragment, Mironenko conceded.

So far, there seems to be no conclusive evidence.

"I have not seen any documents providing evidence that this is the skull of Hitler," said Alexander Kalganov, an official at the FSB's archives department.
 

"It's All Over; I'll fall in Berlin": Hitler's Last Days
The Telegraph [Brisbane, Qld] 
16 May 1945

LONDON: "It's all over. I shall remain in Berlin. I shall fall here in the Chancellery". These were Hitler's words on 22 April 1945, after a long and hectic day in conference, the story of which was told by Gerhardt Herrgesell, a member of Hitler's staff of confidential typists, to a "British United Press" correspondent at Obersalzburg.

Herrgesell began his story with events on 21 April. At 10.20 the Russian artillery became heavier and heavier, and it was obvious they were concentrating shells on the Wilhelmstrasse area where conferences were held from noon onwards. Göbbels, as commander of the defence of Berlin, rushed in and out many times and still no decision was reached about removing the rest of us to the south. Hitler's special company of SS Guards was sent to protect the Chancellery. Various people tried to organise the Chancellery staff into a Volkssturm unit and finally about 500 were armed with rifles and pistols. During the conference from 3 pm to 7.30 pm, it was obvious that things were critical. Ofllcials constantly streamed into the conference room in groups of three or four, and pcrhnps totalling 30. Hitler's sweetheart, Eva Braun, was there. Keitel, Bormannn and Jodl had cramped emergency quarters in a Bunker [the word was unexplained] but the Chancellery was used to house and feed most who come in.

The Führer seemed slightly hazy, and often failed to reply to questions. Obviously he was paying no attention to many of them. During recent days he had not looked very fit. His face was rather florid and puffy. He flushed easily and seemed to become more stooped daily. When he walked his shoulders gave an almost hunchbacked impression. His left arm shook as it had done after I worked at his headquarters. His right hand, which was wounded in the explosion on 20 July, also shook. A bigdecision was made in a 15-mlnutc conference beginning at 5.30 pm on 22 April, attended by Hitler, Bormann, Keitel, and Jodl. Hitler was dressed as usual in dark trousers and a field grey jacket with an Iron Cross over his heart, which was his only decoration. He had previously said, "It doesn't make sense to go on any longer and I shall remain here", but as he did not elaborate nobody was sure whether this was his final decision. But when the steel door closed on the 5.30 conference Hitler announced to Bormann, Keitel and Jodl, "It's all over. I shall remain in Berlin. I shall fall here in the Chancellcry". The conference became heated with all but Jodl trying to make themselves heard at the same time. Keitel and Bormann vigorously opposed Hitler's decision. Only Jodl appeared indifferent.

Keitel and Bormann told Hitler what he said contradicted what he had told them in the past months, namely, that he would fight to the last scrap of German territory. Jodl, who was the only one who had dared to tell Hitler the truth, was quiet, during most of the conference. Bormann and Keitel continued to try to persuade Hitler to go to southern Germany, or Norway, hut Hitler could not be talked out of his decision. He frequently tried to sllcnce them, and then ordered Keitel, Bormann and Jodl to leave Berlin.

This order he must have repeated 10 times, but Keitel and Bormann each replied, "My Führer, we won't leave you," and later they added, "We would be ashamed to appear beforo our wives and children if we did so". Then Bormann said, "It is the first time 1 have refused to obey you," and Keitel said, "I will stay". Jodl said, calmly, "1 won't stay in the household. One cannot work, fight or operate here".

Keitel tried hard to persuade Hitler that Germany still had a great deal left wherewith to carry on the war, but Hitler was unimpressed. Twice Jodl asked, "My Führer, do you yield complete leadership?" Hitler never made, a really clear reply. He had said he expected he and others could hold out in Berlin for two days to a week. Later he said, "Go to southern Germany. Göring shall form a new Government. Göring is my successor, and in any case Göring will negotiate".

Although Hitler repeated these statements he never made it clear whether he was ordering Göring to form a new Government or whether that should happen later when he himself was dead.

There was an interval after the conference and then the same people remet. All but Hitler were summoned by telephone several times. Events later indicated they had phoned various people urging them to phone Hitler and try to persuade him to leave Berlin. Among those who phoned was Dönitz. He gave an optimistic picture but Hitler, after listening awhile, merely said: "Thank you, Herr Grand Admiral. Heil!" then hung up. Then Ribbentrop phoned, apparently from somewhere in Berlin. He spoke excitedly and claimed to have a report of tension between the Western Allies and Russia.

He told Hitler:

"One of our best agents, who travelled in best British circles, has just arrived from Switzerland. He says the British Cabinet already is split and dissension between the Allies must come".

Hitler merely answered:

"Oh, that's what he says. That's what you say".

Then Göbbels appeared with his children. First he brought them to the conference room and then took them next door, where later I saw Eva Braun playing with them. Next Göbbels argued his old thesis about the fight agaihst Bolshevism, adding, "I propose we turn our backs on the west front and continue the fight against Bolshevism". Hitler replied, "No, that's capitulation to the west and I won't co-operate. I don't care". Arguments continued until about 7.30 pm, when Keitel continued to assert he could not leave Hitler, who continued to order him and others to leave. There was also an argument whether the conference records should be destroyed when the end came or whether I should fly with another staff member to transcribe the notes, Hitler decided for the latter course.

When I left the room Eva Braun asked me if I was flying south, and gave me a package to take, also a small box wrapped in paper, which I suppose contained some family jewellery. She wanted to write a letter, but I said I was in a hurry, and she said she would give it to someone later. Hitler and Eva were sitting alone together in the reception room when our party left. We left the Chancellery before dark in cars. There were some women with us, and Hitler's personal physician, Doctor Morrell. Our plane was ready at the airfield. It was a huge Condor transport plane and we took off for Munich at 1.45 am. Herrgeselle added that he and others drove on to Berchtesgaden. He does not know what happened later in Berlin but thinks Keitel may have tried to remove Hitler from Berlin by force.

He admits there is a slight possibility that Hitler is alive, but personally is convinced that Hitler died with Braun, Bormann, and the last of the SS Guards. He opined that to prevent the bodies falling into Russian bands they, with possibly a few others, were placed in a prepared vault in the basement of one of the Government buildings, then sealed off with possibly debris blasted down on the spot. Herrgeselle further stated that Hitler did say indirectly that all was lost, and they, he believed, could best serve the German people by remaining in Berlin. Apparently realising the end of the war would be speeded up by his death also, Hitler made clear he had now not only lost confidence in the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, but in the Waffen SS. However, his confidence in the Navy seemed, to continue to the end.

Records Reveal J. Edgar Hoover's Obsession With Hunting Adolf Hitler
FBI's documents expose a surprising preoccupation with conspiracy theories, namely Jewish plans to assassinate the Führer, and Hitler spottings in U.S. towns after the war
Amir Oren
Haaretz
20 April 2012

Hitler's life and horrors have been analyzed extensively and deeply from every angle, but the files of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation illuminate them from two different, bizarre perspectives.
  
The first, when Hitler rose to power in 1933, is the official response to threats by American Jews to assassinate him. The second, after his death in the Bunker in Berlin in 1945, is the investigation of the theory that Hitler had escaped and was living somewhere in the Americas, openly or clandestinely, and was plotting to revive the Third Reich.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover apparently intended to bring in Hitler's head. Hoover wrote to various informers, some crazy and some avaricious, who told him they had seen Hitler and his partner Eva Braun riding a train or sitting in a neighborhood café in a quiet Virginia town, right under the nose of a complacent administration. Many of these documents were released for publication only recently, at the end of the past decade, and only in part - the names of sources, witnesses and FBI employees are censored.

Hoover wanted to impress the people at the top -the president, the cabinet secretaries, the top military brass- with his Intelligence information. He was competing with other agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency [which was founded in 1947], and in defining the FBI's mandate, he tried to preserve its traditional bastions in Latin America. Hence the sources in Argentina, Brazil and their neighbors, the primary suspects as Nazi sympathizers.

Hitler was elected German Chancellor in late January 1933. Less than two months later, on 23 March, the Reichstag voted to give Hitler dictatorial powers. That day, a letter signed by someone named Daniel Stern or Stearn was sent to the German ambassador in Washington.

It states:

"Dear Sir, I have asked President Roosevelt to publicly remonstrate with your government the outrage upon the Jews in Germany, and to demand an immediate and complete end of this persecution.

"In the event that he does not make such a statement, I notify you that I shall go to Germany and assassinate Hitler".

The ambassador, Friedrich Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron, had been appointed during the Weimar Republic, opposed the Nazis and later resigned so as not to have to serve Hitler's regime. But the letter drove him to complain to the U.S. State Department about "a communication received here, wherein the assassination of the Chancellor of the Reich, Mr. Adolf Hitler, is threatened. I would be grateful if an investigation of the matter could be made and the results thereof communicated to me at its conclusion".

The State Department forwarded the German Embassy's request to the Justice Department, which passed it on to the FBI. Hoover instructed the Bureau's Washington branch to "ascertain the identity of the writer".

Two weeks later the investigation was passed along to a field office in Philadelphia. Investigators in both cities used a sophisticated method - flipping through phone books and municipal registries. They found that a man named Daniel Stern had resided at a specific address, but the building janitor said he had left the apartment more than a year earlier, and his whereabouts were unknown. Stern "appeared to be very high type person and was highly respected by the other tenants in the apartment house," the janitor reportedly said.

The German consul in Philadelphia told an FBI agent that he believed the letter writer was "in all probability some crank, who is a sympathizer of the Jewish element". Moreover, the consul told the agent, he himself was also often inundated with such threats. He did not take them seriously, he said.

On 21 April, the German Embassy received another letter, this time in German, signed by a C. Portugall.

The translation by the German Embassy reads:

"Permit me to draw your attention to the following. In listening to a conversation between several New York Jews, I learned that a plan is under way to murder Reich Chancellor Adolph [sic] Hitler, and that a young American Jew has already been chosen to perform the act. The Jews present were jubilant over the plan. [I] am informing you of the above in order to prevent a possible misfortune".

The Portugall letter went the way of the Stern letter, from the Embassy to the State Department to the Justice Department and then the FBI, but its author was also not tracked down.

In August 1933 another investigation was opened following a complaint by one "Col. Steinman". The writer stated he was a Mexican immigrant in Phoenix, Arizona, a mining engineer and an officer in the Mexican army "who spent 25 years in Mexico in both capacities" under dictator Porfirio Diaz. Steinman wrote to the German Embassy that in May he had heard two Jews talking in "the San Carlos Hotel in Phoenix" about an agent sent by New York Jewry to assassinate Hitler, and that a hotel worker said one of the two men was a rabbi.

Upon questioning, the hotel bellboys said they knew who Steinman was, but did not remember seeing him speak to other hotel guests. Hoping to tie the case to the first threatening letter, agents searched the hotel registry for a guest named Daniel Stern, but found no record of such a guest between April and June.

When he was questioned, Steinman claimed he had visited a friend in a room at the hotel.

"And when the latter left the room for a few minutes and he was left alone, he chanced to overhear a conversation in Yiddish in an adjoining room. The two men were speaking about conditions in Germany and Chancellor Hitler and the latter's antipathy for the Jews. One of the talkers told the other that Hitler would not last long; that a number of Jews in New York City were sending a man to Germany to assassinate Hitler. They named the German boat on which the assassin was leaving, sometime in May, 1933. The assassination was to take place between May and September, 1933. Hitler was either to be poisoned or shot".

Steinman reported that he had followed the two men down to the lobby.

"He said they were both Jews of about 50 years old and quite stout .... He stated as they went out he asked one of the bellboys who they were and that he furnished him their names".

He thought he recalled "the bellboy told him one of the Jews was a rabbi but he is not certain that he was told so".

Steinman claimed that in his letter, he had given the names he had heard as well as the name of the ship, but when he was questioned, he could not recall them. Asked whether one of the names was Daniel Stern, he said he couldn't remember but that he thought not.

Steinman expressed bitterness that the German Embassy had divulged his name, contrary to his explicit request. When the FBI agent continued to question him, Steinman "launched into a tirade against the Jews in this country, stating it will have to take the same action against them within 10 years that Germany has taken". He had tried to obtain a patent for a lead-copper alloy and sell it for industrial use, but American Jews "prevented the financing of same".

In October the FBI branch in Detroit reported that on 25 September, it had questioned "a young Jewish boy, 19 years of age," who "has the appearance of a clean living and moral individual. He graduated from high school in June 1932 and is presently employed as a clerk". He denied that he had information about a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler or that he had spoken about such a thing. The only conversation in which Hitler's name had come up was at his dentist's office. As he was drilling the young man's teeth, the dentist noted that he had formerly used German drills, but that ever since Hitler had begun persecuting Jews, he and many other dentists in the building, he said, had been boycotting German products.

FBI agents went to question the dentist, who said that another patient told him "he did not want any German products used on him and someone 'should bump Hitler off'. This dentist noted that this remark was not made in "a savage way" and added that this "was not the type of an individual who would be involved in such a plot". The patient "is 55 years of age, was born and raised in the state of Michigan, and it was also noted that he is quite hard of hearing and is more or less of the gossiping type".

The Chicago police called the FBI and reported that the German consul general in that city had been told of a plan by American Jews to send a person to Germany to assassinate Hitler. The source had demanded $1,000 for the information and an additional $1,000 when the information was verified. The informer had left Chicago for Washington to meet with the German ambassador. An Embassy official had contacted the Washington police and asked them to keep the informer under surveillance there and in Chicago, in order to uncover his contacts. A top FBI official wrote to Hoover that the Washington police could not operate beyond city borders, and asked if the FBI would continue the surveillance once the man boarded a train to Chicago.

At this stage the FBI agents agreed that the investigation would continue only if the secretary of state made an official request. There is no record of any such request being made.

During World War II, Hoover did not receive much information about Hitler. He gave the little he did obtain - which was eventually proven false - to his superiors.

"From a confidential source information has been received to the effect that widespread reports have been circulating in Germany that Chancellor Adolf Hitler has changed his former plans for his successors and now in case of his sudden death, three German army leaders will succeed him: Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal Karl von Rodstadt [correction: Gerd von Rundstedt]. It is said these three Army officers will continue to rule Germany for a period of five years after the peace in Europe has been established.

"It will be recalled that Hitler first designated Marshal Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess as his successors. However, Hess is now a prisoner in England and it is said that Hitler is likely to outlive Göring".

The most ridiculous chapter concerns the FBI's hunt for people who looked like Hitler.

On 28 August 1945, to the FBI, from [deleted], Chicago, Ill.:

"Gentleman: I truly believe that you will find Adolph [sic] Hitler and his Eva [perhaps even with a child, as reported by the papers] hidden in Japan and perhaps disguised as Japs. The disguise would naturally be there and what better country has he had to hide in up to now. Some of your agents better put on their most penetrating glasses".

21 September, 1945, a missive to Hoover from Los Angeles:

A source [name deleted] told a reporter "on the City Desk of the 'Los Angeles Examiner' newspaper that upon his leaving the Melody Lane Restaurant at Hollywood and Vine on or about 28 July 1945, he met a friend of his who at the time was engaged in a conversation with an individual" whose identity he did not disclose. The interlocutor told the friend "that he wished to find some high government official who would guarantee him immunity from being sent back to Argentina if he told the following information. According to [deleted] he was one of four men who met Hitler and his party when they landed from two submarines in Argentina approximately two and one-half weeks after the fall of Berlin".

Report of Hitler in Argentina, August 1945. FBI Case File 65-53615

The FBI headquarters file on Adolf Hitler, File 65-53615, began being released by the FBI to researchers under the Freedom of Information Act on 26 April 1976, though in a redacted form.

The first document 65-53615-35, which is heavily redacted in the version on the FBI website [https://vault.fbi.gov/adolf-hitler/adolf-hitler-part-01-of-04/view] was completely opened to researchers by the FBI in 1991 and has been opened to researchers at the National Archives for over a dozen years.

 

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover thought the story plausible enough to write a letter to the American embassy in Buenos Aires under the subject line: "Hitler Hideout in Argentina".

Hoover asked the embassy to investigate an Argentine supporter of Hitler, one Mrs. Ida Eichhorn, reported to be a reputable member of Argentine society and the proprietor of the largest Spa Hotel in La Falda, Argentina".

According to Hoover, Eichhorn:

"Made available to [Josef] Göbbels her entire bank account which, at the time, amounted approximately to thirty thousand marks, which money was to be used for propaganda purposes. ...she and her family having been enthusiastic supporters of Adolf Hitler since the Nazi Party was founded.

"That during the years after he came to power, her friendship with Hitler became so close that she and members of her family lived with Hitler in the same hotel on the occasion of their annual visit to Germany".

"That if Hitler should at any time get into difficulty wherein it was necessary for him to find a safe retreat, he would find such safe retreat at her Hotel [La Falda] where they had already made the necessary preparations".

The FBI’s investigation proved inconclusive.

The rumours about Hitler and Eva Braun disembarking near to San Antonio Oeste gave rise to all manner of assertions, and in 1997/1999 the ArgNavy even went so far as to fund a diving operation to look for a Type XXI believed to lie close inshore and which had been seen from the air by a private flier. Nothing was found, although Patrick Burnside produced the photograph of a mooring peg which was alleged to be similar to that fitted to a Type XXI. Unfortunately this particular Type XXI must have been constructed from very poor steel, for the wreck to which this peg was attached had virtually disintegrated and could not be photographed. In 2003 the ArgNavy, a team from Trondheim University and the BBC was involved in the search for a Type IXc40 believed to lie north of the Valdez Peninsula but nothing was found.

WW2 Nazi U-Boat Washes Up Off Coast of Argentina After 70 Years
by Bob Flanagan
7 November 2015

LAS GRUTAS: What is believed by experts to be the wreck of a World War 2 Nazi submarine has been found washed up off the coast of Argentina this week by a group of Norwegian tourists. The group of unsuspecting tourists were astounded to discover the remains of the 70-year old submarine on a deserted beach during a two-week bike trek tour of Argentina’s East coast shoreline.

Experts believe the wreck to be the remnants of a German U-Boat [Unterseeboot, literally “undersea boat”] which was likely washed ashore after violent undersea currents washed up the WW2 submarine during the magnitude 8.3 earthquake that shook Chile last September.

The discovery of a German U-Boat in Argentinian waters, the farthest of any known WW2 German submarine wreck ever found, is already exciting the imagination of WW2 historians who believe many Nazi high ranking officials might have used this kind of transport to flee Germany after the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945.

WW2 Historian Fernando Martin Gomez and professor at University of Buenos Aires believes the 70-year old submarine might have been washed up by heavy underwater currents during the magnitude 8.3 earthquake that took Chile by storm last September

A historical discovery

“This is very unexpected” admits Gomez. “Not only is it exceptional to find such a wreck in such good a state after 70-years but I believe we also have to deal here with a very peculiar kind of German submarine, the Seehund [literally “seal”], a particular class of midget German submarine which might have been used for the sole purpose of bringing Nazi officials to South America at the end of the war” he told the "Buenos Aires Times".

“What we have here is proof of German troops landing on Argentinian soil during WW2″  he explained.

“We estimate that at least 5,000 Nazis fled to Argentina after the war. But this kind of military vessel must have been used only for a distinct few, possibly for top ranking officials of the Nazi organization".

Nazis in South America

It is estimated that over 9,000 Nazi war criminals fled to South America in the aftermath of the Second World War, finding refuge in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, countries that had stayed neutral during the conflict.

Professor of History at University of Oxford, Winston H. Hollinger, entertains the possibility that Hitler and high ranking Nazi officials might have used such a vessel to escape to South America

"The data clearly shows a large number of German high officials fled to South America after the end of the war. The idea that Hitler fled to South America is only now being more and more accepted by academic scholars," explains professor of History at University of Oxford, Winston H. Hollinger. "Declassified FBI files and the arrest of Herman Freudenstadt in 1987 clearly lead towards this possibility,"” acknowledges the expert.

Herman Freudenstadt, a former German Hauptsturmführer [Captain] in the SS police force and childhood friend of Hitler, was arrested in Argentina in 1987 and convicted for war crimes in Italy.

His court statements still, to this day, cause much consternation amongst scholars after he claimed at the time to have fled with Hitler to South America in a submarine composed of a small crew of which a number of unnamed high ranking Nazi officials were allegedly part of, a story that created a media frenzy at the time but was dismissed by specialists.

"The discovery of this U-Boat could lead some credence to the court statements of Herman Freudenstadt," admits professor Hollinger.

3 October 1946, from Mrs. [deleted], Department of State, to columnist Walter Winchell, New York:

"One day in August 1946, I went down the street on business, stopped at the S.W. Restaurant for lunch, as usual the place was crow[d]ed, tables scarce, looking around trying to find a place I found this man at a small table just for two, so I asked if I may share his table ... I sat down, trying to figure out just who that person could be, after close observation, Hitler came to my mine [sic]. I thought Hitler in person.

"So then I looked for something to make that name fit with the person, the following: Description: I found was right jaw larger than the left, black mustache cut like he had his cut, dark eyes, black hair, it looked like it had been dyed, the most impressive thing about the man was his hands, large with a large ring on the left hand, just as white as could be, looked like he had been in confinement for sometime, would say he is about 5 feet, 7 inches, 150 lbs., more or less, suit was miss matched [sic] coat of checks, cheap looking, very nervous he played with his napkin, after he finished his lunch he sat at the table playing with his napkin and watching his watch, after a period of time he leaves saying [Par don]...

"I agree with you that Hitler is not dead, I really think he is right here in Washington, D.C."

8 May 1947, from Hoover to [censored]:

"Reference is made to your letter dated 28 April 1947, wherein you state that a reputable physician and surgeon of [censored] reported information to the effect that possibly he had been treating Adolf Hitler ... Most of the statements in the public press allege that Hitler is in South America and he went there by submarine. None of these allegations of course can be proven by fact and the American Army officials in Germany have not located Hitler's body nor is there any reliable source who will say definitely Hitler is dead; therefore the possibility exists that he is alive. The United States Army is spending most of its efforts to locate Hitler in Spain".

Hoover's letter goes on to say that the doctor prescribed the patient "tablets containing 20 milligrams Trasentine and 20 milligrams of phenol barbitol, one to be taken before each meal" and "formed the impression that the man might be Hitler," so much so that he had the man come back for a follow-up appointment in the presence of the doctor's daughter, a college student and "a very stable type young woman". The doctor stated that his daughter, after viewing this man, had become so nervous and excited she could not stay in the office, due to the fact that she too thought this man could have been Hitler from his appearance.

A handwritten note, undated:

"Dear Sir, I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that Hitler is located right in New York City!

"There's no other city in the world where he could so easily be absorbed. No doubt you have considered this possibility, but I mention it for what it is worth anyway".

3 March 1948,
FBI Office Memorandum. Subject: Adolf Hitler and woman aboard City of New Orleans, Ill. Central Railroad.

"Dr. McSwain stated that this was washed out; that two Special Agents, [censored] and [censored], had got on the train and had closely observed the person in question and his woman companion. It was so obvious to the agents that this person was not Adolf Hitler that they did not make a positive determination of his identity, feeling that it would possibly create a situation causing absurd publicity. He stated that the person in question was not more than 42; that instead of a foreign accent he had a very pronounced southern accent; he wore a brown mustache; and his general appearance and over-all description precluded any possibility of his being identical with Adolf Hitler. The woman accompanying him, who had previously been stated to be 41 years old, in the opinion of Agents [censored] and [censored] could not have been more than 22 or 23".

28 November 1950, to Hoover from the branch in Madison, Wisconsin:

"This is to advise that [censored] in Madison, Wisconsin, has reported to this office that he is positive that an individual by the name of [censored] was in reality Adoplh [sic] Hitler in disguise, and that he was very convinced of this fact and that in the event the agents of the Milwaukee office did not immediately apprehend [censored] he was going to write to Washington in order to see that this matter is properly taken care of.

"It is to be noted that [censored] at the time of the interview would interrupt the interview to play the violin and to open the door in order to see that his neighbors weren't listening, and generally appeared to be mentally deranged".

The FBI's obsessive concern with Hitler raises the question of whether it was only the censored sources who were mentally deranged.